The Kennesaw State University Office of Research launched four Research Communities, which represent an interdisciplinary infrastructure that has the resources to provide meaningful research experiences and workforce preparedness to our students and invite corporate and community partners to work with us toward this goal. These Research Communities below were identified following an internal examination of the university's research strengths.
The Office of Research is proud to announce the inaugural Faculty Research Champions!
These faculty researchers will develop and lead interdisciplinary research cluster
teams, assess funding opportunities, and support grant applications. Champions are
expected to build and support successful research teams for each track, including
other faculty researchers and students. Research success is measured by subject-specific
research outcomes, typically external grant support, publications, exhibits or performances.
Sustainable Communities
Dr. Mario Bretfeld
Assistant Professor of Biology
Born and raised in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Dr. Mario Brefeld studied Landscape Ecology
at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. During an exchange year in Colorado,
he studied aspen (Populus tremuloides) regeneration in response to different disturbances,
including fire and conifer mortality due to mountain pine beetles. After graduating
in 2010, he returned to Colorado to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Northern Colorado
in the Franklin lab. His dissertation research included long-term aspen community
changes in and around Rocky Mountain National Park, responses to the mountain pine
beetle outbreak, and resource sharing through the connected root system of aspen (i.e.
clonal integration). He received his Ph.D. in Biological Education in 2014.
After graduation, Dr. Bretfeld moved to Panama as part of a post-doctoral fellowship
with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the University of Wyoming.
In Panama, he worked primarily in the Agua Salud project and measured plant water
use (i.e. transpiration) in regrowing tropical forests of different ages, as well
as in a cattle-pasture and a coffee plantation. From April 2017 to July 2019, he lived
and worked in Laramie as a post-doctoral fellow in the Ewers lab at the University
of Wyoming. Since August 2019, he has served as assistant professor of biology in
the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Kennesaw State University.
Dr. Erin Adams
Associate Professor of Social Science Education
Dr. Erin Adams teaches courses in Elementary Social Studies Methods and Classroom Community Building. She works with Ed.D. students in Teacher Leadership and Secondary and Middle Grades Education (history and social studies education).
Her research is primarily concerned with economic education in general, but specifically in elementary and early childhood. More broadly, she is interested in resource use and extraction, posthumanisms, and social studies and civic education. Her inquiries use post-qualitative, theory-driven research methodologies and analyses.
Dr. Mine Hashas-Degertekin
Associate Professor of Architecture
Dr. Hashas-Degertekin has been teaching and conducting research on urban environments with a focus on human experience, place character and equity for humane, sustainable and healthy places for diverse groups of age, race and income. She conducted research individually and at various research centers at NC State, GA Tech and KSU linking physical and emotional health, culture and behavior to built-environments, economic development and equity.
She has been active on various action groups and task force groups of United Nation’s Regional Centers of Expertise (RCE) Greater Atlanta and has been co-leading its “Advancing Justice for All” Action Group since August 2021. She also serves on NAACP’s “Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Program Initiative Committee.” She is the founder and chair of Equitable, Ecological and Creative place Making Initiative, as well as Creative Place Making Biannual Symposium. As a member of Transformation Alliance Atlanta, she has conducted research and taught urban design studios in collaboration with TFA partners focusing on sustainability with all three pillars, as well as closed loop and generative economies utilizing local history and cultural elements of low-income communities.
Innovative Creativity
Dr. Michael Carroll
Associate Professor of Architecture
Michael Carroll is a tenured associate professor at Kennesaw State University. Prior to this appointment he was an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University. He is a registered Canadian architect. He is a founding partner of atelier BUILD, a design/build firm based in Montreal. Atelier BUILD was awarded the Canadian Professional Prix de Rome of Architecture in 2004.
Michael Carroll is the founder and director of MAT_LAB at Kennesaw State University, a materials library, lab and exhibition space. His research focuses on materiality in contemporary architecture with a focus of material expressions of under-represented communities.
As Principle Investigator (PI) he is the architectural designer of the KSU Mini-Pavilion
at the Cobb County Safety Pavilion. Together with Dr. Billy Kihei (Co-PI 1) they lead
the charge to constuct the pavilion and use it as a site for off-campus research as
well as a 'classroom' to instruct elementary students on the interconnection between
safety and sustainability.
Dr. Victoria Lagrange
Assistant Professor of English
Dr. Victoria Lagrange is an Assistant Professor of Game Narrative in the Department
of English at Kennesaw State University.
Her scholarly interests revolve around the examination of novel storytelling formats and their impact on audience reception and participatory culture. Dr. Lagrange’s scholarship includes multiple published articles, including analyses of the transmedia expansions of Bill Willingham’s Fables, the intricate relationship between violence, empathy, and decision-making in interactive fiction, and the study of user reception of video games. Her recent publications include work in Behavioral and Brain Sciences and PloS ONE.
Additionally, she serves as the director of the Game Narrative Lab at Kennesaw State University, where her team’s focus is on the creation and evaluation of prosocial video games. Their latest game, Corporation, Inc., recently achieved recognition by winning an international critical thinking games competition.
Andrea Knowlton
Associate Professor of Dance
Andrea Knowlton is an Associate Professor of Dance at Kennesaw State University, where she teaches Dance Technique, Dance Filmmaking, Improvisation, Dance Pedagogy, and mentors undegraduate research. She is a choreographer, filmmaker and educator. She is the recipient of the College of the Arts' Early Career Faculty Award (2023). She has presented her artistic work in New York City, Los Angeles and Atlanta, GA. She creates and screens films nationally and internationally, at top tier festivals including Dance Camera West, Screen Dance International, and Frame Rush @ The Place London.
As an educator, she has taught at California Institute of the Arts, California State
University Long Beach, and Pasadena City College. She regularly presents research
on her areas of focus, including Dance & Artificial Intelligence, and Dance Filmmaking.
She is the Principal Investigator and recipient of a National Science Foundation Award
which supports collaborative research exploring relationships between improvisational
dance and artificial intelligence towards the creation of an interactive dance avatar.
She has published in several Human Computer Interaction journals as a dance specialist.
She holds a BFA in Dance/Choreography from Marymount Manhattan College in NYC and
an MFA in Choreography/Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts.
Applied Technologies
Dr. Sylvia Bhattacharya
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology
Dr. Sylvia Bhattacharya is an Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering Technology at Kennesaw State University (KSU), USA and Faculty Research Champion in. Office of Research, KSU. She is also an ex-Visiting Research Faculty at Google, Mountain View. She graduated with a PhD degree in electrical engineering from Florida State University in 2019. Her research expertise is in Autonomous and Intelligent Transportation System, Neural Signal Processing, Human Computer Interface, and Artificial Intelligence. She has been awarded funding by U.S Army Research Laboratory to conduct research on “Multimodal Inference of Human State to Track Cognitive Processes in Risky Environments” and “AI Blind Spots.” She is also the 2020 and 2021 Google Explore CSR funding recipient for “An Initiative to support Under-represented and Minority groups toward Graduate Computing Research and Studies.” Dr. Bhattacharya is the director of Neuro Interaction Innovation Lab in Kennesaw State University and has been mentoring PhDs, masters, and a team of
undergraduate students.
Dr. Jason Harron
Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology
Dr. Jason Harron is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology in the Bagwell
College of Education. He specialized in emerging technology research at the intersection
of computation, design, technology and the arts in K-12 and higher education. His
current research focuses how to support student and teacher agency through the creation
of digitally fabricated mathematical manipulatives, and how to support the development
of spatial reasoning and design skills using collaborative models and simulations
mediated by extended reality (e.g., augmented, mixed, and virtual reality) technologies.
Dr. Mahmut Karakaya
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Mahmut Karakaya is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the College of
Computing and Software Engineering. He received his BS degree in 2005, MS degree in
2007, and PhD degree in computer engineering from the University of Tennessee in 2011.
He is the author of more than 40 articles and holds two patents. His research interests
include machine learning, security, biometrics, and medical data analytics. He has
managed four externally funded research projects as PI with a total budget of $669,000
including the recent NSF-SaTC award. He is a member of IEEE and SPIE.
Health and Wellness
Dr. Weiwei Chen
Assistant Professor of Economics
Dr. Weiwei Chen is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Coles College of Business. She specializes in empirical analyses in health economics and health services research. Her work has covered the effect of health insurance, changes in health care utilization and expenditures, child health, and issues of vaccine uptake. Her recent research focuses on substance use, hospital care outcomes, and health care in correctional facilities. Dr. Chen has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and consultant on research projects funded by local and federal government, international organizations, and private entities.
Dr. Brian Kliszczewicz
Professor of Exercise Science
Dr. Brian Kliszczewicz is a Professor of Exercise Science in the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services where his research line is cardiovascular and metabolic stress with a sub-emphasis
on body composition variables as they relate to acute and long-term exercise.
The evaluation of cardiovascular stress (via Heart Rate Variability) and metabolic stress (via Glucose, Insulin, Catecholamines...) following acute bouts of exercise provides important insight to exercise appropriateness and effectiveness. The evaluation of these markers over long-term exercise interventions allows for the assessment of exercise effectiveness and adaptation. The evaluation of body composition beyond simple measure of body fat provides much-needed insight into variables that lead to metabolic and cardiovascular responses to acute and chronic exercise. Initial assessments performed in our lab evaluated high-intensity exercise in relatively healthy and active individuals.
Dr. Maria Valero
Assistant Professor of Information Technology
Dr. Maria Valero is an Assistant Professor of Information Technology in the College of Computing and Software Engineering at Kennesaw State University, where she also serves as the Director of the pioneering IoT as a Service (IoTaS) Research Group. She earned a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Georgia and a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Los Andes in Venezuela. Dr. Valero has carved a niche for herself in cutting-edge research. Her diverse research interests converge around IoT and AI, catalyzing transformative innovations in smart healthcare, distributed computing, signal processing, wireless sensor networks, and cyber-physical systems. Dr. Valero has served as PI of multiple research grants in NSF, NIH, and NSA. She is currently the PI of an NIA-funded project related to developing a non-invasive AI-powered blood glucose monitoring system, for which she secured a provisional patent and national and international recognition.
